Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve been holding out on you guys, and I really need to apologize. Every week I share a recipe with you, and all the while I’ve been keeping this perfect chocolate chip recipe close to the vest. My friend Laura served these delicious little suckers when we were at her house a couple years ago, and like I always do when Laura cooks, I ate way too much, and begged her for the recipe.

Since that fateful day, I’ve been churning out chocolate chip cookies like it’s my job, and eating them like it’s my job, too. I always double the recipe, and they rarely last more than a few days. I make chocolate chip cookies for playdates, I give them as gifts, and if I’m being honest, we eat a good amount of them in dough form.

If you are looking for the perfect chocolate chip cookies, your quest is over. Everyone likes these cookies, even people who usually don’t like chocolate chip cookies. If you are like me, you’ll be annoyed that you need to buy bread flour and that the dough needs to chill for 24 hours, but once you try one of these cookies, you’ll make bread flour part of your pantry staples, and you’ll be buying butter in bulk. There is so much butter in this recipe. Sugar, too.

I like to bake one batch, and roll a second batch into golf ball sized balls and freeze them. That way, when I need a quick treat to take somewhere, I can pop them straight into the oven, or if I feel like making just four cookies for our family’s dessert, I can do that, too.

Sorry about all the weight you’re going to gain. You may as well start buying bigger pants now.

2½ sticks (1¼ cups) salted or unsalted butter at room temp (if you use salted, which I do, just add half the amount of salt above)

1¼ cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 bag chocolate chips (I like the Trader Joes ones)

Sea salt.

Instructions

Mix flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment (before I had a fancy stand mixer, I just used my normal hand mixer with the attachments that weren't the whisk), cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.

Drop chocolate chips in and incorporate them without breaking them.

You can then refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours, which does make the cookies better somehow, but I also have baked them right away and they're still good. Or, you can make dough balls the size of a golf ball and freeze them.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.